If the prospect of visiting the eerie forest of Romania is a little too scary for you, think of it as another Twilight movie. Scarier still? Thought so. This is why I’ve prepared 159 additional countries for you to visit in my blog, so if Romania is not your cup of blood, click away!

Now. For those thick-skinned of you who are on for the trip. Romania is the country of Dacia. Dacias everywhere… But who is Dacia I hear some of you ask…

Well. Dacia is the main Romanian car manufacturer (with Aro) and always had close links with French manufacturer Renault, and in 1999 Renault bought Dacia, to make it their low-cost center.

Today, the Dacia Logan has managed 86 consecutive months atop the Romanian ranking and still commands close to 27 percent of the market 7 years after its original launch. Impressive.

But Dacia doesn’t just manufacture the Logan. In 2008 a hatchback based on the Logan was launched: the Dacia Sandero. Interestingly, the Sandero has not been met with great success in its native country: it struggles to get into the Top 10 but ranked #7 in October with 223 sales sales and 2.8 percent share. It is #10 year-to-date.

Conversely, the Sandero has been a clear success in France. It reached an outstanding 2nd place in March 2010, ahead of all Renault models. It also is doing really well in Brazil, where it is sold as the Renault Sandero and regularly ranking within the Top 10 in a very vigorous market.

Dacia was started during the cold war as a push toward industrialization in Romania and had long ties to Renault much like other Eastern European companies had access to designs from FIAT. I’d guess it was a result of Ceausescu trying to keep a modicum of independence from Moscow and taking advantage of interwar ties between Romania and France, who spent some time trying to make Romania a potential second front threat for any future conflict with Germany.

Don’t feel bad about knowing where the term Dacia comes from; why be ashamed about knowing things?